When I think of love poetry I think of an emotion that live one bare. The poetry though must not reflect that emotion in any way because if it tries to cover that feeling then the poem will lose its potency on the reader. Having tried to write love poetry myself in the past and having received a few in my life, I have to say they were awful! What I mean by that is that if a poet only focuses on the emotion then it becomes too exhausting for the reader to follow a poem without dimension. A good love poem, and here I will focus on romantic love, perhaps the most popular, seems to have a definite subject. I like love poetry that is not one dimensional as a heterosexual love. I appreciate love poetry that is measured in a poem by some other greater force. In the Portuguese sonnets, EBB measures it with the illusive promises of time and aging.
At times in the poem we feel that love is god sent as she begins the poet Theocritus and how he wrote of love of Adonis. I immediately get a sense that love for EBB is a manifestation of divine, pagan traditions and that a poet can only be inspired to write of love poetry from sources that are found there. Literary traditions of love poetry are also very prominent in her poem as we move along. She produces oppositions in the poem such as people’s opinions of their love and the opposite attraction that has happened between the two. We never hear the man speak of their love. The woman speaker is the one telling us the story and I wonder since they are so different and she is older, what does he think about all this? So I began looking for evidence of his love for her. “Beloved I only love thee! let it pass.” Not sure here… I feel like she is talking to herself.
We also see a woman’s life has been transformed with this love of a younger man and so she tries to justify her desires for him by explaining how she feels. Her life had been “The cup of dole” and bitterness until she knew of “life in a new rhythm.” The best line yet is: “I will not soil thy purple heart with my dust.” In this line we can sense how she feels as if aging has been contaminating to her and then it would be to him. She questions the possibility that her age might make him feel old just as he can make her feel young to love again. She feels a change in the world due to her love for him. “The face of the world is changed, I think” is the altering moments of love that penetrate through not only the speaker but the reality around the poet and reader as well. If love is powerful enough to capture and change the world then it is capable through time, even while reading the poem to see potential in the world as a beautiful place.
There is a sense of another fear in the poem form the poet. She is afraid that her love for him might in time take over her poetry, either by only writing for him as the object, or to give it up completely. “Why conquering/ may prove as lordly and complete a thing/ in lifting upward, as in crushing low!” Here I see Corinne, and the tradition of women who five up their art for men. The poet, even though enjoying love and is inspired, is in fear of what the future lasting effects of love because she does not distinguish where love comes form and is concerned of the sources of feeling and inspiration are from the same place, some divine design. “If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange/ and be all to me?” And the best line for me is a meditation by the poet is this could be a passing love that the poet will reflect as the time between “sorrow and sorrow.”
When I think of love poetry I think of an emotion that live one bare. The poetry though must not reflect that emotion in any way because if it tries to cover that feeling then the poem will lose its potency on the reader. Having tried to write love poetry myself in the past and having received a few in my life, I have to say they were awful! What I mean by that is that if a poet only focuses on the emotion then it becomes too exhausting for the reader to follow a poem without dimension. A good love poem, and here I will focus on romantic love, perhaps the most popular, seems to have a definite subject. I like love poetry that is not one dimensional as a heterosexual love. I appreciate love poetry that is measured in a poem by some other greater force. In the Portuguese sonnets, EBB measures it with the illusive promises of time and aging.
At times in the poem we feel that love is god sent as she begins the poet Theocritus and how he wrote of love of Adonis. I immediately get a sense that love for EBB is a manifestation of divine, pagan traditions and that a poet can only be inspired to write of love poetry from sources that are found there. Literary traditions of love poetry are also very prominent in her poem as we move along. She produces oppositions in the poem such as people’s opinions of their love and the opposite attraction that has happened between the two. We never hear the man speak of their love. The woman speaker is the one telling us the story and I wonder since they are so different and she is older, what does he think about all this? So I began looking for evidence of his love for her. “Beloved I only love thee! let it pass.” Not sure here… I feel like she is talking to herself.
We also see a woman’s life has been transformed with this love of a younger man and so she tries to justify her desires for him by explaining how she feels. Her life had been “The cup of dole” and bitterness until she knew of “life in a new rhythm.” The best line yet is: “I will not soil thy purple heart with my dust.” In this line we can sense how she feels as if aging has been contaminating to her and then it would be to him. She questions the possibility that her age might make him feel old just as he can make her feel young to love again. She feels a change in the world due to her love for him. “The face of the world is changed, I think” is the altering moments of love that penetrate through not only the speaker but the reality around the poet and reader as well. If love is powerful enough to capture and change the world then it is capable through time, even while reading the poem to see potential in the world as a beautiful place.
There is a sense of another fear in the poem form the poet. She is afraid that her love for him might in time take over her poetry, either by only writing for him as the object, or to give it up completely. “Why conquering/ may prove as lordly and complete a thing/ in lifting upward, as in crushing low!” Here I see Corinne, and the tradition of women who five up their art for men. The poet, even though enjoying love and is inspired, is in fear of what the future lasting effects of love because she does not distinguish where love comes form and is concerned of the sources of feeling and inspiration are from the same place, some divine design. “If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange/ and be all to me?” And the best line for me is a meditation by the poet is this could be a passing love that the poet will reflect as the time between “sorrow and sorrow.”